26 May 2026·3 min read
Dialogue where everyone answers the question
If every question in your scene gets answered, the scene has no undercurrent.
Read a page of your dialogue. Mark each question and the reply that follows it.
If they line up neatly, there is your problem. People do not answer questions. They answer a different one, or the one they wish you had asked, or they ask something back. Not to be awkward. Because everyone in a conversation wants something slightly different out of it.
Two agendas, not one
Give each character a private goal for the scene, and make sure the goals are not the same.
Now the dialogue has friction without anyone raising their voice. When a scene reads like two people swapping information, it is nearly always because they agreed in advance what the conversation was about.
The reading test
Read every line spoken by one character, in order, out loud, skipping everyone else.
Then do the same for the next character. If they sound like the same person, you have one voice coming out of several mouths. Spelling the accents differently will not fix that.
Read more
Everything above came out of one of these. If any of it was useful, they are where it gets explained properly, with more examples and more patience than a short piece has room for.
Stein on Writing · Sol Stein
The most practical book on revision I know. Nearly every chapter ends in something you can do today.
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers · Renni Browne & Dave King
Two working editors. Every rule comes with a before and after from a real manuscript.
Steering the Craft · Ursula K. Le Guin
Short and exact. The exercises are the point, so do them.
These are search bait. I spent about five minutes on each. The letter you get back is nothing like this. Why that is
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